Status, Problems and countermeasures of Energy development in Yunnan Province

ZHOU Zong-hong, HOU Ke-peng Faculty of Land Resource Engineering Kunming University of Science and Technology

KMUST Kunming 650093, China

Zhou20051001@163.com

Abstract—This paper investigates how to adjust the energy structure and improve the utilization efficiency to achieve energy sustainable development in Yunnan province. The characteristics of energy natural endowment and present situation of development and utilization was investigated, and the main problems in energy development were analyzed. Based on the advantages of resource and location, some new methods such as energy-saving, consumption-reducing and developing the renewable energy were put forward. The results indicated that science and technology innovation, policy innovation, low carbon technology and environment protection are the efficient way of energy sustainable development in Yunnan province.

Keywords-Renewable energy; energy saving and consumption reducing; low carbon economy; environment protection; scientific and technological innovation

I. INTRODUCTION Since the development of western china, the economy has

obtained rapid development in Yunnan province. Along with the accelerating development of industrialization and urbanization, the energy consumption will grow rapidly. In addition, considering the “West-to-East Electricity Transmission Project” and “sending Yunnan electricity to outside”, the contradiction between the energy, environment and economic development is increasingly prominent. The Yunnan energy industry development program 2005~2009proposed the goal, that is, the energy consumption per unit GDP is to be controlled in 1.26 tons of stand coal per ten thousand Yuan RMB, and five-year accumulation drops 13% by the end of “Eleventh Five-year Plan”. The energy sustainable development has to face with the serious challenge.

The domestic and foreign scholars have made a lot of research about energy sustainable development. Karen et al. [1] investigated the Canada’s energy sustainable development strategy. Alexandros et al. [2] investigated the relationship between environments, energy and economy growth by energy synthesis. Wang et al. [3] investigated the features and trend of international energy development. Li et al. [4] investigated and proposed the China’s energy sustainable development strategy that took promoting the new energy and energy-saving as the core vigorously. Shen et al. [5] investigated the connotation of energy sustainable development, and resolved the major factors that affected the China’s energy sustainable development.

However, most of studies took the developed areas as the objects, and the research about undeveloped areas such as Yunnan province is insufficient.

The natural endowment, current situation and problems of energy development in Yunnan Province were analyzed in this article. Referencing to the domestic and foreign advanced experiences, the countermeasures of energy development were investigated and given. Moreover, some countermeasures to alleviate the bottleneck of resource and environment such as development of circular economy, technical innovation, low carbon technology, ecological environment protection and so on were put forward.

II. METHOD AND RESULT

A. Status of energy development and utilization

1) Characteristics of energy natural endowment The hydropower resource is very abundant in Yunnan

province. Its theoretical potential amount is 1.0364×108 kW, accounting for 15.3% of national total that, occupying national 3rd. The economical exploitable amount is 9.79504 ×108 kW, accounting for about the national 24.4%, ranking national 2nd. The coal resource is relatively rich. The proved reserve is about 2.4×1010 tons, occupying national 9th.

Known as the reputation of plant kingdom, the biomass is very rich in Yunnan province. Located in the plateau mountainous area, the superiority of solar energy is obvious in Yunnan province. The annual average sunshine hours are 2200h, with radiant intensity. The solar radiant energy accepted in the entire province every year is equal to more than 7.311010 tons of standard coal. The geothermal resource is also relatively abundant, with a variety of hot spring 706. The available area of wind energy resources is 4.52×104 km2, and the reserve is 28320 MW. However, the oil and gas resource are scarce.

The coal resources are concentrated in Qujing, Zhaotong and Honghe in east, northeast, south Yunnan, whose retainable reserves account for about 87% of the total one. 92% of hydropower resources are located in the northwest, northeast and southwest Yunnan. However, the energy resources in Central Yunnan with relatively developed economy are few. Its

Foundation Project: National Natural Science Foundation of China Funded Project (51064012); Analysis and testing foundation of Kunming University of Science and Technology (2010306).

978-1-4244-8039-5/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

energy consumption accounts for about 57.7% of the total that in the province.

2) Present situation of exploitation and utilization Table 1 shows that with the rapid economic development,

energy consumption increased year after year, and the average annual rate has growing since 2005.

TABLE I. TENDENCY OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND GDP

Year Energy consumption (Standard coal 104t)

GDP (108 ¥ RMB)

2009 2008 2007 2006 2005

The structure of energy production is coal-based, and hydroelectricity is auxiliary. The production of oil and natural gas is almost empty.

coal64.30%

oil12.69%

natural gass0.93%

hydropower19.57%

others2.51%

Figure 1. Structure of energy consumption in 2009

As shown in Fig.1, the characteristic of energy consumption is coal-based. The coal consumption accounts for 64.30% of the total one, the oil product 12.69%, the hydropower 19.57%. However, the proportion of renewable energy and natural gas is excessively low. Energy consumption structure is: the primary industry accounts for 2.8%, second industry 74.8%, tertiary industry 11.9%, residential consumption 10.4%.

B. Main problems

1) Low energy utilization rate The economic growth mode is extensive, and the industrial

structure is unreasonable. These become a big bottleneck to restrict the energy sustainable development in Yunnan province. At present, the proportion of primary, second, tertiary industry structure is 17.3: 41.8: 40.9. The proportion of second industry is excessively high, but the tertiary industry is too low. The heavy industries such as electric power, metallurgy, building materials, chemical industry and so on with high energy consumption, high pollution is primary within the second industry.

The energy consumption per GDP is 1.495 tons of standard coal per 104 ¥ RMB, being higher 38.8% than the national average level. The electricity consumption per GDP is 1591.1

kWh per 104 ¥ RMB. The GDP occupies for national 1.84%, while energy consumption 2.64%.

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Figure 2. Tendency of industrial structure and unit GDP energy consumption

Compared with the provinces and cities in eastern, middle and so on, the efficiency of energy utilization is lower.

2) Unreasonable energy structure Limited by the resources condition, the varieties of energy

production are single in Yunnan province, mainly coal and hydropower, lack of oil and natural gas. The coal-based energy structure caused extensive pollution emissions, having high carbon dioxide emissions intensity.

3) Insufficient development of renewable energy The water resources are very rich, but the degree of

development and utilization is low. The development of biomass energy industry is in the early stage. The overall quality and competitiveness still need large substantial improvement. Besides hydro electricity, methane and solar water heater, the development of other renewable energy is quite slow. Compared with the overseas, there are large gap in some aspects such as personnel training, research and development, equipment manufacture and technology service.

In conclusion, the above problems are seriously restricting the energy sustainable development in Yunnan province. At the same time, the environmental pollution brought by energy consumption also causes heavy economic loss, and seriously harms the resident’s health.

4) Lack of technological innovation ability The level of economy and technology development is low,

and the independent innovation is weak. Except hydropower, solar heating system and methane, the technique and industrialization level of other renewable energy source is low. The investment to research and popularize the wind power, solar photovoltaic power and biomass energy technology is higher, and the financing of industry development is relatively difficult.

The systems of new energy resource evaluation, industry technology standard, product testing and certification and so on are imperfect. The related talent lacks. The technical service system to support the new energy industry development has not been formed.

III. DEVELOPMENT COUNTERMEASURES Facing serious situation of energy and environment, the

view of economic and social development should be changed in Yunnan province. Depending on science and technology progress and technical innovation, the circular economy and low carbon economy should be developed to realize fundamental transformation of economic development way, fundamentally reducing energy and environment pressure.

A. Improvement of energy efficiency

1) Adjustment of industrial structure The low energy use efficiency mainly lies in extensive

economic growth pattern and unreasonable industry structure. The proportion of the high-energy consumption industry such as electric power, chemical industry and metallurgy and so on is excessively high, but that of low-energy consumption and high added value industry such as electronic information, precise manufacture and tertiary industry is too low. Therefore, complexion to achieve the rapid economic growth by high investment and consumption should be changed through transforming development way and adjusting the structure. The road of new industrialization with high technology, good economic returns, low resources consumption and little environmental pollution should be insisted.

The development of tertiary industry should be speeded up, especially modern service industry such as tourism, modern logistics and so on. The technological innovation and invention should be encouraged to enhance the ability of independent innovation. Using high technology and advanced technology to transform and upgrade the pillar, traditional advantageous industry such as non-ferrous industry, chemical, metal, electric power, construction materials and so on to promote industry upgrading.

2) Promotion of science and technology innovation The science and technology input should be increased.

Depending on the technological progress and innovation, the resources and environment problems of the economic, social development in Yunnan province should be solved. The optimization and upgrade of industrial structure should be promoted through the science and technology innovation to enhance the quality and benefit of economic growth and to realize the transformation of economic development way from extensive to intensive management. The resource use efficiency should be raised to realize the transformation from the resource consumption to resource saving economy.

Therefore, the government guidance and support has to be strengthened, and the research investment should be enlarged. The technical attack of new energy related core technology should be carried on to develop and popularize the technology to suit the characteristic of energy resources and environment in Yunnan province. The industrialization development of renewable energy new technology should positively be advanced through deepening the system reform of technology management. It should be speeded up to establish the technological innovation system that takes the enterprise as the main body, market-oriented and combines with production, study and research.

3) Ways of energy-saving and consumption-reducing The technology of energy-saving and emission reduction

should be developed vigorously, taking the energy-saving technology as the priority subject of energy technology development. The energy-saving key technique of high-energy consuming domain should be solved to improve the use efficiency of primary and final Energy.

There are the following three ways to save energy and to reduce consumption. The first way is to strengthen the energy-saving propaganda, improving the universal resources hardship and saving consciousness continuously. The second one is to adjust and optimize industrial structure positively, and to limit the development of high consumption industry strictly, compelling to eliminate backward production capacity. The circular economy should vigorously be developed to establish conservation-oriented economy system. According to the principle of reduce, reuse and recycle, the operating mechanism with energy-saving, consumption-reducing and resources comprehensive utilization which takes the enterprise as the main body should be established. The third way is to improve the construction of energy conservation laws and regulations system continuously, and to make and implement the energy-saving special plan and standards, strengthening supervision [6]. At the same time, complemented by financial and tax incentive policies, the market-oriented method need to be improved to guide the construction resource saving society.

B. Development of the renewable resource Due to the unique geographic, climatic conditions and

natural environment, there are rich renewable energy resources in Yunnan province. The development of renewable energy resources has the extremely practical realistic significance to adjust energy structure, to slow down the energy tense situation and to improve ecological environment.

1) Rational development of hydro energy The hydro energy resources are rich, and the concentration

degree is high, but the development degree is low in Yunnan province. At present, the exploitation rate is only 21.8%, having bigger potential. Therefore, the opportunity that the national energy strategic center is moving to the west should be hold to develop hydropower orderly, fostering the hydropower industry as a new pillar industry [7]. There are two ways to develop hydro energy. One way is to set up the sustainable development idea to do the basin plan of hydro power well. The enough ecological space should be retained in the plan, taking the ecological protection as an important objective of hydro power in the construction. Another way is to attach importance to the local economic development and the farmer benefit, combining the hydro power development with the water resources comprehensive utilization, the farmer’s cast off poverty, ecological construction and the local economy development.

2) The development and utilization of biomass energy The multiple characteristics of living resources are

remarkable, and the thermal and sub-thermal regions are broad with very rich biomass resources. Besides, there are vast suitable land resources. Therefore, the development of biomass energy has the advantageous superiority in Yunnan province.

There are the following three ways to develop biomass energy. The first one is to constitute the development goals and strategies of biomass energy. Being still in the growing and developing phase, the development and utilization of biomass energy needs a practical, feasible development goals and strategy to guide the industry to develop efficiently and orderly. The second way is to consummate the economic policy to stimulate biomass energy resources development such as tax reduction policy, financing investment policy and so on to speed up the industrialization and commercialization advancement. The third way is to strengthen the research and development of related technique and equipment of biomass energy resources. The support system that takes the enterprise as the main body and combined with production, study and research has to be established. The key technologies of the various industrial links such as variety selective breeding, planting technology, processing craft, storage transportation and circulation and so on should be attacked to enhance localization level of biomass energy resources technique and equipment.

3) Solar energy In the solar photovoltaic-thermal and generation utilization

of solar energy, Yunnan province has the strong technical advantages and better industrial basis. The application scale of solar photovoltaic power should be gradually enlarged through the way to combine with policy support and market cultivation. The technological innovation has to be strengthened to promote the cost of solar photovoltaic power to drop, to complete the Shilin large-scale solar photovoltaic power as soon as possible. The technology and production of solar water heater, solar cookers and solar cells and so on should be developed positively.

C. Science and technology innovation and promotion It has to depend on science and technology innovation and

industrialization application to reduce energy cost as soon as possible. First, the research and development and the organization construction of renewable energy need to be supported. Second, the industrialization development of renewable energy new technology should be advanced to establish the renewable energy technological innovation system, forming the perfect industry system. All sources of Industry-University- Research has to be mobilized to attack the key technology of new energy by bidding.

D. Development of low carbon technology The competitive industries with Yunnan’s characteristic

such as biology, metallurgy, new material of non-ferrous metal, phosphorus chemical industry, coal chemical industry and equipment manufacturing industry and so on are the main domain of the low-carbon technological innovation research. Taking the enterprise as the main body, the innovation research of the low carbon technology, low energy consumption technology and technology of energy efficiency improvement should be strengthened based on the mature production process, technical route and workflow. The ways and means to carry on the promotion of existing process by low carbon technology need to be explored. The industrial energy efficiency should be enhanced vigorously, and carbon emission

reduced through innovative transformation of the production technology key point.

E. Ecological environment protection There are six big river systems such as Jinsha River,

Nanpan River and Lancang River and so on, which are the upper, source and watershed of the rivers and streams such as Yangtze River, Pearl River and so on. The special geographical decides that ecological protection and construction not only have the profound influence to economy, society in the basin, but also play an important protection to the middle, down stream area. Yunnan province is the areas where have richest biodiversity, at the same time, the ecological environment is very fragile. Therefore, the contradiction between environmental protection and economic development is extremely incisive.

First, while carrying on the large-scale development and utilization of energy resources, the environment monitoring has to be strengthened to advance the environmental protection facility construction and the ecosystem monitor of constructedconstructing energy resource projects. Second, resources paid use system and ecological compensation mechanism should be established and perfected to handle the incisive contradiction between ecological environment construction and economic development.

IV. CONCLUSIONS Depending on science and technology advance and

innovation, the circular economy and low carbon economy should be developed vigorously. This is the only way to achieve the energy sustainable development.

Under the background of low carbon economy, the development way should be transformed to promote the industrial upgrading and energy adjustment. The renewable energy should be developed vigorously, taking the saving, clean, low carbon road. It is the inevitable choice to achieve the energy sustainable development.

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